Yes, they're too aggressive.

I believe that a lot of police officers have a paranoia that they won't be feared. Not respected, of course they want to be respected, but feared. Cops understand that people aren't gonna respect them, so they rely on fear. Due to that, some of them are overaggressive, and they pull their gun too quickly.

I support officers being able to carry lethal deterrents, but...

Based on what I've been seeing on the news, things are getting out of hand fast. Today on the news, I heard a 12 year old boy carrying a pellet gun was shot dead by a police officer. There's no excuse for that to happen. And that is only the latest to a piling body count of people killed by police. This year alone. There is a plethora of non-lethal options to exhaust before turning to lethal force, such as tasers, pepper spray, rubber bullets, batons, etc. And that's all before calling in reinforcements.

Police officers also implicitly agree that their duty is to protect and to serve the people, even laying down their lives if necessary. Not to preemptively shoot to kill. If a criminal fires at the police first, the police officers reserve full rights to fill him with lead. But not until that moment comes.

I will concede that situations with people tripping on PCP or bath salts may be an exception to this, but again, lethal force should only be taken once all non-lethal attempts have been exhausted.

Good cops don't need to kill unarmed people to get control of the situation.

I hate to put it this way but I am from an era when officers of the law were good enough at their job where they did not need to reach for a gun to subdue a situation. One of my favorite examples was I was in Detroit attending a free concert on the river when a person walked through.Screaming and yelling at people attending concert. An officerapprox. 8" shorter and weighed probably 50,lbs less than the agitated person calmly approached the man and asked him to be quiet or move on and let everyone enjoy the show. The man moved on. About 20 minutes later the man returned waving a 3' steel rod and screaming at people again. The officer calmly wakes up to him and disarmed him. He then applied hand cuffs and walked him away. I feel the standards have fallen and mow we do mot perform our due diligence when hiring new officers. I was a firefighter and we always went through processes to weed out those who would panic or act in an unprofessional manner. If you have to shoot an unarmed person, you are a failure at your job. Period.

Why go for the lethal weapon from the start when so many non-lethal, self-defense options are available

Pepper sprays, tasers, attack dogs. The police have various options to deal with different types of crimes. Guns might make it easier to take control of the situation, but it also makes it easier to take a life. Given that they do sometimes deal with very dangerous occupational hazards, it isn't necessary to go for the lethal approach and pull a gun out on the perpetrator. It would do a lot of good to remind police officers that their job is to serve and protect, not shoot to kill.

Countless dead bodies piling up answers this question

I've watched countless videos from Great Britain where the police disarm knife wielding criminals without further incident. In this country a call about a naked psychotic man running around, somehow winds up with him dead, even though there was no weapon present. It seems to take minimal provocation for citizens to be gunned down like dogs in the street. There has been complaints for years but it was the officer's word against the other person's, if they survived. The benefit of the doubt nine times out of ten was given to the officer. With the implementation of body cameras and cell phone videos the tide is slowly changing.

Why go for the lethal weapon from the start when so many non-lethal, self-defense options are available

Pepper sprays, tasers, attack dogs. The police have various options to deal with different types of crimes. Guns might make it easier to take control of the situation, but it also makes it easier to take a life. Given that they do sometimes deal with very dangerous occupational hazards, it isn't necessary to go for the lethal approach and pull a gun out on the perpetrator. It would do a lot of good to remind police officers that their job is to serve and protect, not shoot to kill.

No, because police officers are trained to react to a hostile situation, where drawing a weapon is necessary and can mean life or death.

I do not believe officers are too quick to pull out their weapons. I believe officers are trained to the best of their abilities to spot potential situations where drawing their weapon is necessary. Officers may draw their weapon in order to ensure their own safety, or the safety of the public. Drawing their weapon also serves as a deterrent and also ensures that they can respond accordingly to the threat.

It's a hard job

Ideally guns would be illegal and police officers would be far safer doing their duty and would be less willing to withdraw and discharge firearms. Sadly we do not live in that world today. Police officers have good reason to be concerned over their lives and most people in their situation act in the same manner. The incorrect shootings of innocents is tragic, however the blame does not lie on the officer. Ban guns and work on making society safer is the solution, tying police officers hands behind their backs will only worsen criminal activity.

Its a hard job

Ideally guns would be illegal and police officers would be far safer doing their duty and would be less willing to withdraw and discharge firearms. Sadly we do not live in that world today. Police officers have good reason to be concerned over their lives and most people in their situation act in the same manner. The incorrect shootings of innocents is tragic, however the blame does not lie on the officer. Ban guns and work on making society safer is the solution, tying police officers hands behind their backs will only worsen criminal activity.

It's a stressful environment.

Imagine a job where you have to deal with delinquents who refuse to obey the law, now imagine that same crook pulls a gun on you, if you were smart, you would definitely pull out a gun within a second's time and disable the person threatening to take your life.

Generally I would say no

Police are paid by us taxpayers to do a job. As a taxpayer, I do not wish to stand in their way. When I get pulled over, I put my hands on the wheel until they tell me to do otherwise. If I were to become combative, how could they possibly know what I am capable of?? If an officer pulls his gun, I say we leave it to the investigators to figure it out.

They have a job

To keep their community safe and they take it seriously as they should they do not fool around if someone is robbing a store and they think they have a weapon they are not going to fool around while innocent lives are at risk they will take out the threat

No, grow up

Have you EVER seen a cop pull his gun? I haven't, I don't know anyone who has. So the answer is there are a particle group of people who have a particular tendency to make the pull pull their guns. There people have above average crime statistics and visibly are uncooperative and even combative with police.Reality is the police are just doing their job and in today's culture of 'making me feel bad is a crime' people are attacking cops unjustifiably.

The ONLY people I know who have problems with cops are people who think they can mouth off to anyone and everyone and be the biggest A-hole possible and think cops aren't people too. Grow up.

Reason there are so many deaths in the US is because of gun laws + awful immigration. Firepower + crime and poverty always leads to violence and tragedy.

They are not.

Sure, once in a while you may have a police officer who is quick to draw their weapon but I would guess they face a lot of suspects that are armed. For instance if they patrol an area with a lot of gang violence, there is a good chance that any call they go to will involve someone with a gun. That being a good possibility, it would be foolish of the officer not to pull his weapon or else be put at a disadvantage of a suspect getting the drop on them.Over my life time, so far, I have had many times when police were involved. Nothing major, just police asking me questions when hanging out or at traffic stops. In all that time, I have never seen a police officer take out his gun. Closest thing I have seen them do is rest their hand on their weapon.Besides living in an areas with low crime rates, there are other reasons why they never did pull out their weapons.-I never ran from the police. You see, running from the police makes it look like you may have something to hide, like a fire arm.-I never hung out around or was involved with gangs. Gang members are more likely to have guns so an officer may need to take precautions.-I obeyed what the officer said. Not following commands indicates you may also act against the officer.I remember one time while walking home from the bar, a female officer stopped me. I guess there was home robbery in the area so the officer had to take some precautions. She asked me to stand on the shoulder of the road while she asked me questions and waited for back-up. Another thing she asked me do was toss my umbrella that I had been caring in case of rain. A male officer arrived, asked me to put my hands on the car while he pat me down. After that and getting my information coming back clean, the officer said I could pick up my umbrella and go home. Tho it was a bit of a pain, the officers never raised their voice much less pulled their weapons. All it takes is to be polite and respectful.

They are given weapons for a reason.

Police officers are meant to safeguard the peace in the locality. And that might mean having to go against armed personnel, for which its quite obvious to carry a firearm. Moreover, an officer needs to give a proper report for every round he fires, so he needs to be more worried it than we are.

They do what they must

A police officer must ensure public safety at all times. Sometimes this means using a weapon to hinder a suspect. Unfortunately, with more media coverage of police shootings, many people in this country have changed their perspective on police officers, and create a more hostile environment. Added to this is the numerous officers who lose their lives in the line of duty. It's no wonder a police officer is quick to pull a gun to diffuse a situation before things get completely out of control.